Being The Best You Longterm

Menopause and aging have been getting a lot of attention lately.

And the focus has been a lot on optimization: being the best at it.

People strive to be the fastest, fittest, youngest looking.

The last one — looking young — (yes, a human wrote these em dashes plus put in the spaces) has muddied the waters a bit I think.

Not that there is anything wrong with looking as young as you can. But I see increasingly people selling all sorts of things solely based on looks.

And I think after 50, the real flex is to feel good in our bodies and being strong (not necessarily the strongest) and taking care of our whole selves every day.

Life isn’t easy. The shiny influencers with the perfect everything are clearly selling a dream and are only showing snippets of their lives.

And that’s ok. As long as the consumer of the perfect content is aware of that. And I think we hardly ever are.

I would like all of us to work on ourselves to be the best versions we can be: a bit faster, stronger, less achy, more relaxed, more confident, less anxious…

And at the same time, in the long term, I think it serves us to let go of wanting to be the best at everything.

We can be strong without having to be the strongest. We can look good the age we are without having to be the youngest looking “for our age.”

Consistent, sustainable, daily effort creates lasting benefits even though they are often non-shiny.